Anyway you look at it – this is an absolutely frightening number. Apple has just announced that iOS users have downloaded over 10 billion apps from the app store in just two and a half years!
“With more than 10 billion apps downloaded in just two and a half years—a staggering seven billion apps in the last year alone—the App Store has surpassed our wildest dreams,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The App Store has revolutionized how software is created, distributed, discovered and sold. While others try to copy the App Store, it continues to offer developers and customers the most innovative experience on the planet.”
Granted, we’d imagine that a large number of said apps were free downloads and/or Angry Birds, but regardless it’s becoming increasingly clear that the App store, and the manner in which it distributes software is changing video games industry at a dramatic pace.
How will this effect the release of the Nintendo 3DS and the as-yet-unannounced PSP2 – will we still be as willing to pay full price for hard copies of video games when accessing content via the app store is cheaper and easier? One thing’s for sure – the next couple of years are going to be very interesting for the increasingly crowded handheld market.
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